A study was made of the tolerance to Cu of 11 strains of Cyanophyceae and 7 strains of eukaryotes. These had all been tested within 6 months after isolation for their photosynthetic activity when exposed to Cu (Takamuraet al., 1989) and had repeatedly been subcultured in the medium without Cu for 2 years. Photosynthetic measurements were made in two ways: precultured in medium without Cu or precultured (for one subculture) in medium containing Cu (645 μg 1−1). The results were compared with those obtained within 6 months of isolation. The tolerance of the eukaryotes did not change significantly in any case, but most strains of Cyanophyceae lost their tolerance to Cu within a few subcultures in medium without Cu; however tolerance recovered following one subculture in medium containing an intermediate level of Cu. This rapid adaptation cannot be explained by a constitutive mutation.